The Happy Cook: 125 Recipes for Eating Every Day Like It's the Weekend

Nerdy Birdy

Letters from Paris

American Cake

The Secret Garden

The Rose

A History of the Fragrant Rose

Friday, March 12, 2010

On the Web Site Links page on my web site, I have a link to a very special blog, and I want to do a post about it here on my blog because it's so precious.

In the spring of 2005, a lady named Julie Corsi discovered that a robin had built her nest under Julie's bedroom window on top of a rose trellis! She took photographs of the nest for nearly a month, chronicling the laying of the eggs through the departure of the babies from the nest.

It's really a pleasure to read the blog, and the photos are beautiful. Julie also has the photos posted on flickr. You'll find the links below:

Thursday, March 11, 2010

MY GARDEN IS A PLEASANT PLACE~By Louise Driscoll~My garden is a pleasant place

Of sun glory and leaf grace.

There is an ancient cherry tree

Where yellow warblers sing to me,

And an old grape arbor, where

A robin builds her nest, and there

Above the lima beans and peas

She croons her little melodies,

Her blue eggs hidden in the green

Fastness of that leafy screen.Here are striped zinnias that beesFly far to visit, and sweet peasLike little butterflies, new born;And over by the tassled cornAre sunflowers and hollyhocksAnd pink and yellow four-o-clocks.Here are humming birds that comeTo find the tall delphinium,Songless bird and scentless flowerCommuning in a golden hour.There is no blue like the blue cupThe tall delphinium holds up,Not sky, nor distant hill, nor sea,Sapphire, nor lapis lazuli!My lilac trees are old and tall,I cannot reach their bloom at all.They send their perfume over treesAnd roofs and streets to find the bees.I wish some power would touch my earWith magic touch and make me hearWhat all the blossoms say, and soI might know what the winged things know.I'd hear the sunflower's mellow pipe,"Gold-finch, gold-finch, my seeds are ripe!"I'd hear the pale wisteria sing,"Moon moth, moon moth, I'm blossoming!"I'd hear the evening primrose cry,"Firefly. Come firefly!"And I would learn the jeweled wordThe ruby throated humming birdDrops into cups of larkspur blueAnd I would sing them all for you!My garden is a pleasant placeOf moon glory and wind grace.O Friend, wherever you may be,Will you not come to visit me?Over streams and fields and hillsI'll pipe like yellow daffodils,And every little wind that blowsShall take my message as it goes.A heart may travel very farTo come where its desires are,O, may some power touch your ear,Be kind to me, and make you hear!*Image reblogged